A Trust is an extremely flexible document that can help you distribute your assets exactly how you want to.
Here are 5 things you didn’t know you can choose when creating a Trust.
1.The Name
The “J&J Doe Trust” or “John and Jane Doe Trust” are traditional conventions for naming a Trust – but you can choose whatever name you want!
Including names of the Originators of the trust is helpful for financial institutions – but there’s no legal reason that you can’t get creative.
2. Your Family
You may have heard of “chosen family” – but may not have known you can choose who is treated as your family by the Trust.
If Billy is your step-son-in-law from a previous marriage, but you’ve always seen him as your own son, you are allowed to state that he is to be considered a child of yours for the purposes of the Trust.
3. Who is Excluded
If you want your assets to be divided amongst your children, except for one in particular, you can intentionally omit them from your Trust. It’s a myth that you must leave $1 in your Will to someone to prove you didn’t forget about them. If you don’t want them to have anything, you can ensure they get nothing.
4. Who gets What and When
Most Trusts have a Trustee designated to manage the money for the beneficiaries if the beneficiaries are younger than a certain age, even if they are legally an adult. The Trustee makes sure that the beneficiary has money for health, education, maintenance, and support, and can use their discretion when providing funds for anything else.
While you do want your beneficiaries to benefit from their inheritance, it’s ideal for the assets in the Trust to be invested in such a way that the principle amount grows and compounds over time. This results in the beneficiary having more of an inheritance than they would have if they had had the opportunity to blow it all at the very beginning.
When originating the Trust, you can decide exactly when your beneficiaries receive funds from the Trust. This can be in percentages after a period of time, based on their ages, or even based on circumstances or milestones.
5. Protection if Circumstances Change
Your Trustee can also be given the power to withhold money from the Trust, excluding funds for health, education, maintenance, and support, if there is a concern about financial irresponsibility, or addiction, that could put the Trust at risk of being drained.
While a trust document can be flexible, it’s important it’s written by a knowledgeable attorney to ensure all of your wishes are followed exactly – and covers any possible contingency so no matter what the circumstance, you have control over your assets.
